In the aftermath of January 2026's crackdown, voices within and close to the Islamic Republic renewed calls for Iran to complete a nuclear deterrent, claiming the bomb would have prevented the current existential crisis. Houshang Sepehr, exiled Iranian Marxist and editor of Solidarité Socialiste avec les Travailleurs en Iran, challenges this on structural grounds. Drawing on the cases of India, Pakistan, and North Korea, he argues that nuclear deterrence only functions within security architectures backed by a great power patron --- a guarantee Iran never had. Neither Russia nor China was willing to absorb the risks of a nuclearised Islamic Republic contesting US hegemony. The bomb, he concludes, would have deepened Iran's isolation rather than protecting it.

The first round of the local elections took place against a backdrop of widespread creeping fascism in France and comes after a brutal offensive by the far right, during which the traditional ‘Republican' right has decisively broken from much of its historical framework and values.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran goes into its third week, the people of the United States are still figuring out what they think about the conflict. Since the war began, most polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of the war, something unseen in modern American history. A majority of Americans approved of World War II, the Korean War, and initially of the Vietnam War. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2000—the American government, anxious for revenge—was backed by huge majorities when it made war on Afghanistan in 2001. When in 2003 the George W. Bush administration wanted to make war on Iraq, it fabricated false evidence that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction, and, bamboozled by Bush, nearly three-quarters of the American people supported the war.

The first round of the French local elections will take place on Sunday 15 March, the second on 22 March. There is a real possibility that the “traditional” right, which is increasingly radicalizing in a far right direction, will win in Paris, under Socialist Party government since 1995, and that the Rassemblement National could win in France's second, and very multi-racial, city, Marseilles.

“It's the workers of the hospital that know best how to run it. Of course, there are different ideas but we have the experience of working together. That's where the health team comes together to figure out how best to care for the patient and involve the family in a discussion.”

“This landmark ruling highlights the links between institutional politics, militias and economic interests in Rio de Janeiro.”

A look at some of the challenges facing socialist feminists around International Women's Day 2026.

The upcoming mass No Kings! demonstrations planned for March 28 and ambitious plans for May Day mobilizations point to the growing convergence of anti-Trump forces. This convergence takes place against the backdrop of Trumps' destructive assault on democratic rights in the US and the sovereignty of nations abroad, most recently his reckless aerial attack on Iran, and plummeting approval ratings in the polls.

“"Either their profits or our lives": the slogan is everywhere.”

Another workplace death at the former Ilva steel plant in Taranto while production languishes and Minister Urso fails to act. Workers mobilise. Solidarity from Sinistra Anticapitalista

All Sides Will Make the People Pay

The majority of the party votes to maintain its autonomy and a commitment to social change.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have conducted a tremendously powerful air war against Iran which, as Iran responded and Israel also made war on Lebanon, quickly became a regional war bringing death and destruction to many Middle Eastern nations, killing thousands. Trump is now demanding Iran's “unconditional surrender” and the right to a role in choosing the country's future leaders. Elected as a candidate who opposed foreign wars and regime change, Trump has repeatedly betrayed his promises.

With the far right on the rise, it is vital to defend and extend women's rights. What does the spread of nostalgia politics mean for women?

“What kind of leader is Nooshi, who does not dare to take a ‘clear and unambiguous' stance like the Spanish Social Democrats, whom she herself often praises?.”

This call was published by Sotsialnyi Rukh on their Facebook page.

LAST YEAR I celebrated International Women's Day in Lviv in Western Ukraine. It was the first women's march since the end of COVID and the beginning of the Russian reinvasion in 2022.

“Without organising women workers in hosieries, in jute mills, among hawkers, fighting for their rights, 8th March loses its significance. Today, when neoliberalism and Hindutva-fascism is sharpening assaults, women's rights must also be placed within the context of fighting that.”

“At a time when we would like to see “surging” mobilizations in the face of an exponential rise of the far right, we take a closer look at what the feminist mobilizations of the autumn of 1995 can teach us about the possibilities of unity today.”

All over the world, women are promoting networks of solidarity, forms of protection and denunciation against all violence, whether domestic, imperialist military or fascist. Women are building forms of resistance in their territories against hunger, poverty, wars, extractivism, climate collapse and deprivation of rights.